Obdormio.com

I like watching TV shows on DVD much better than watching them on tv. To be able to watch as many episodes as wanted in one sitting, anytime, and being able to hit pause every now and then (no TIVOs over here) just makes it all much more enjoyable. The downside is that I end up sitting in front of the tv all day long, watching episode after episode and neglecting everything else, such as school work, friends and food.

This past month or so, I’ve gone a bit overboard, and way over budget, when it comes to DVD collections, resulting in much, much neglect. To try and make up some of that, I’m writing up short reviews of the boxes here.

The one that I’ve been waiting the longest for is the first season of Stargate Atlantis, which finally became available in stores here, a mere year and a half after it was published. I’d had expectations for this built up pretty highly, but I was not disappointed. I won’t go into the show itself, suffice it to say it is highly recommended, and focus on the extras instead. I’ve been spoiled by several seasons of SG-1, where every single episode would have a commentary, so the Atlantis box did let me down a bit there. And the commentaries they did have seemed slightly rushed. Two of them included people who didn’t even work on the show at all, as if they just threw everybody with a free hour into the commentary room to fill it out.

The other extras were pretty much what I expected after eight seasons of SG-1 extras, and equally uninteresting, for the most part. I wish those video diary things were actual video diaries by the cast and crew, rather than orchestrated and directed by others.

All in all, it is a good box, thankfully smaller than the giant SG-1-boxes which just eat shelf space. It still has those inexplicable ads though, and this time they’re even more inexplicable, as there was no other Atlantis box out when this was published.

I’ve also bought the first two seasons of House, MD, which I’m really loving. They’re short on extras, but frankly, I’ve not seen the ones on them yet. I’ll probably be craving commentaries in a few days, when I’ve had a long enough break from the watching, but for now, the episodes themselves are enough. TV needs more crazy doctors.

And speaking of crazy doctors, I also bought season four of Scrubs, which is always fun. They’ve apparently given up on commentaries completely, which is a shame. They did include the some basics, though, like deleted scenes and short behind-the-scenes, which is more than I can say for the next show.

Namely, 3rd Rock from the Sun. As I said in the previous post, this show is several times more hilarious than I remembered it being, and I remembered it as being pretty damn hilarious. I’ve bought five seasons of this (oh, my aching wallet!), but the sixth is apparently not as easily available. These have no extras whatsoever, but the hilarity of the show makes the price more than worth it.

So, what do I say after several weeks of hard TV?

Fuck cliffhangers.

Seriously, fuck cliffhangers. Especially in season finales. I know, they do it to blackmail themselves into another season, which is good, I suppose, when it works, but they can also go horribly, horribly wrong. The Atlantis cliffhanger in particular is bugging the hell out of me. Who knows when season two will show up in stores here? Gnah.

Well, that’s what I’ve been doing these past few weeks. Now that I’m done, I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch up on all the stuff I’ve been ignoring. Like school work. All that lovely, lovely school work.

I wonder if season three of Arrested Development is available here yet…

Obdormio is currently unavailable for posting here, as he is watching a lot of “Babylon 5″.

And by “a lot”, I do mean “all”.

(He’s also occasionally showering and digesting foodstuffs, but I’m suspecting he would be able to post here despite doing those things, and thus I won’t mention them.

Outside these parentheses, anyway.)

It isn’t easy, especially when you have friends clearly set out to sabotage your academic development in any way possible - by, say, lending you five seasons of quality television-series mere days before you need to really start writing your assignment. Or lending you even better books, mere days before that. Or nagging you into joining a board game taking up one of your precious set-off-for-writing-afternoons. Get the picture? ‘Cause Obdormio sure has.

That’s right folks, your one and only beloved GUEST-BLOGGER is back, and I’m here to tell you, our gracious host simply doesn’t have the time to stop by and complain about how he doesn’t have time to stop by and complain.

Thus, I’ll do it for him, despite having tons of stuff to do myself, because that’s just how nice a guy I am.

WAAAAH, I DON’T HAVE TIIIIIME!

There, now that that’s over and done with, what has Obdormiboy been up to lately? Well, aside from his compulsive just-one-more-episode-habit of watching ”Babylon 5″, he’s been writing his assignment in ”Academic Writing”,
a compulsory introductory-course in Norwegian universities. Booh-yeah, right? No problem for good ol’ Dormie?

WROOOONG!

He’s struggling, people! Struggling! He needs all the help he can get, and that’s not all - he needs MORE help than he can get, which might be the problem.

You see, he can’t get his summary summarized enough. Mind-shattering, I know, but the man turns out not to be perfect after all. While the rest of us are now no doubt sighing as one in unison relief, we have to be understanding if Obdormio doesn’t join in. He is, after all, way too busy with shortening down his summary. Something which presents quite the challange, considering his working-schedule opens for maximum four minutes work per episode of B5, and that DOES include mentally preparing oneself for working, a ritual which has been known to take at least five minutes.

In other words, our boy is in a dire mess. We should help him out. I should help him out. I don’t have time, though, because the only spare time I had today has been used up writing this post. But at least I got his weblog active again. I’m sure he’ll be ever so pleased. :D

Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

What? So I’m taking Roman History this term. Sheeesh.

Dear Discovery Channel. Or possibly Discovery Channel Norway, or Scandinavia or whatever.

What the hell?! You’re replacing Mythbusters with Brainiac in the eight o’ clock timeslot? Braniac?! What’s wrong with you? Mythbusters wipes the floor with Brainiac!

Now, I’ve watched those re-runs five times, and you know damn well that I’d watch them five more. Why on Earth take them away for something as insipid as Brainiac?

I’m all for phasing out American culture, but we have to face facts here! What we have here is an American show that is better than the British replacement. Swallow the bile, and put it back on! If you can’t find it in your hearts to do this, perhaps a worthy British version of Mythbusters could be made. They took Scrapheap Challenge, so they probably owe you. I have my doubts, but it might work, if you put Robert Llewellyn and some other charismatic fellows in it.

Still, that should be “Plan B”. “Plan A”, simpler and probably cheaper, is GIVE ME BACK THE MYTHBUSTERS, DAMMIT!

Yours truly,
Obdormio.

So, I watched all the episodes in SG-1 season eight. Then I watched all the extras and behind-the-scenes features. Then I watched all the episodes again with commentaries. And now it’s over, and I’m sad.

I was disappointed that three episodes came without commentaries this time. Naturally, the three episodes I most wanted to hear commentaries on. “Threads” in particular should have been included in my opinion. Especially since this season was two episodes shorter than usual. This is because of Atlantis, of course, which I don’t have yet.

Man, I wish they’d show Stargate on TV here. It’s ages and ages to wait for the DVDs! Atlantis is right around the corner, but then it’ll probably be at least a year before season nine comes out.

I have purchased season eight of Stargate SG-1. Yay!

This has left a painful void in my wallet. Ouch.

The DVDs include advertising before the menus, a phenomenon I have great dislike for, but these are a bit peculiar.

They’re advertising for Stargate SG-1.

The following ad for Atlantis, I can understand. But the first one? Has me baffled.

I already bought the DVD! I’m already won over! Why on Earth are they trying to convince me this is a good show, when I’m already prepared to spend exorbitant amounts of money on it?

The only thing they’ve managed to do is piss me off, I hate ads before the menus.

Why? WHY?! It’s not fair dammit! Television floods over with bad shows about people trying to date amid stupid twists, and people getting surgery and makeovers and people surviving on stupid islands. We’re drowning in stupid sit-coms, rehashing the same old formulas. We get to watch inane game shows!

But “The Pretender”? Was cancelled.

Cancelled.

We’ll never know what happens to Jarod in the end. We never get to know if the Centre gets what’s coming to them. We’ll never know the true significance of Edna Raines humming that song.

And also, Andrea Parker was fantastic.

Now I’m depressed.

This is your fault, Loki!